Letter From Regional Office To LCAD Managment

Dear Simone

Offer to Open Pay Negotiations

I am the Regional Official for the University and College Union in Yorkshire and Humberside. First of all can I take this opportunity to congratulate you on your appointment as Principal of Leeds College of Art and Design and also express my desire to establish a meaningful and productive relationship between ourselves and the institutions we represent.

Barry Lovejoy wrote to you on 2nd June informing you of the industrial action ballot result and the impending one day strike timetabled to take place on 10th June. The local branch officers and I would like to meet with you as a matter of urgency to discuss and progress the issue of moving staff to the AOC national pay spine.

I have seen the e-mail you sent to all staff on 3rd June and have noted your recognition of the hard work and dedication staff have shown and continue to show towards the college and its students. You have stated that this is something that you value and appreciate. These are very worthy sentiments and I am sure colleagues appreciate this. However, staff now want to see this appreciation to be shown in the colleges pay system. It is clear from the e-mail that there are many major differences between the national Harmonised Pay Scale and LCAD payscale. You will be aware that employees at the college are paid considerably less than colleagues at other colleges in the region.

Your e-mail also mentioned, banding and a pay differential of £8,355 at the top of the scale. It is clearly therefore misleading to imply that the college has already implemented the harmonised pay scale.

UCU are opposed to hard restrictions being placed on the pay spine that link pay progression to additional responsibilities. The 8 Point Pay Scale for the career family “Teaching and Training” when agreed in 2004 has no restrictions placed upon it and is designed to remunerate qualified main grade lecturers.

If there are genuine financial issues that are affecting the implementation of the national pay spine we would wish to discuss them. However it should be noted that we believe the college is in good financial health and that the implementation of the 2004 pay deal is well overdue.

It is not too late to prevent industrial action. As already stated local Branch Officers and I would welcome a commitment from you to begin “meaningful consultation”. If you could provide a formal written proposal regarding how to resolve this outstanding issue this would be most welcome.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Yours sincerely

Julie Kelley
Regional Official